


Échantillon

by melonbutterfly



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-29
Updated: 2010-08-29
Packaged: 2017-10-13 00:13:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It sounded like such a good idea; of course it backfires spectacularly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Échantillon

Eames practically _jerks_ awake, and Yusuf jerks with him while Cobb turns around from where he was standing at the window, Ariadne looking up from her textbook; both wear confused expressions that deepen to frowns when Eames jerks the needle out of his wrist, gasping, throws himself out of the deck chair and stumbles over to where Arthur is coughing himself awake, gasping for breath. He's clumsy, but quick enough; when Arthur leans over the side to vomit, arms trembling and too weak to hold himself upright, Eames catches him just before he loses his balance, wraps his arms around Arthur's torso as he gasps and coughs and spits out whatever is left in his stomach. He folds his body around Arthur's and just holds on.

It takes five minutes before Arthur – and it's not only Arthur, it's Eames as well – stops trembling so violently it almost looks like he's epileptic or an addict on withdrawal, stops spitting and choking and most of his coughing, only breathes anymore. It takes five minutes before Eames notices he's muttering, mouth pressed into Arthur's slick hair, lips forming "darling" and "it's alright" and "we're back, sweetheart", "it was just a dream, honey". Five minutes before he comes aware of the others, Cobbs and Ariadne and Saito and Yusuf, standing nearby and staring and mumbling. He faintly remembers someone trying to touch him earlier, remembers jerking away and curling more protectively around Arthur.

Arthur's hands are on Eames arms, not pulling away but holding on, and then someone – Saito, surprisingly, bless his soul – moves a glass of water into their line of vision, a wet towel. It takes Arthur unaccountably long to let go, to unwrap the fingers of his right hand from where they're clawed around Eames wrist, above his still rapidly beating heart. But he finally manages, and Eames tightens his grip, pulls him back a little so he can grab the towel. He wipes his sweaty face and mouth, drops the towel carelessly and then takes the glass of water, spills some of it because his hand isn't steady yet, rinses his mouth, tries to wash away the sour taste.

After that, he doesn't have any excuse anymore, but his try to pull away from Eames is less than half-hearted, and Eames for once doesn't take his cue – or perhaps takes it with the same sharp-eyed attentiveness as always – and doesn't let go, only pulls him back even further, until Arthur is leaning into his chest. His head lolls back, onto Eames' shoulder, and he stares upwards with unseeing eyes, still breathing heavily, then closes them with a shudder, curls himself even more into Eames, hides his face in the warm place where his collarbone and throat meet, where the first two buttons of his shirt are undone. Eames lets him shift around, doesn't stop holding him, and for once, Arthur doesn't think about how the forger will interpret his actions, doesn't care if he'll read some sort of acquiesce into them.

Eames doesn't, but later, much later, he starts trembling again, only this time with anger, and he doesn't let go of Arthur even when he moves, again, as if to pull away, though he doesn't try too hard anyway. Eames' grip is very tight on him, and it's as much comfort for Arthur as for him.

"Don't ever use that mix again," Eames says to Yusuf, and his voice is calm and cold, fury bleeding through, sounding weird with Eames voice that is usually more on the silky, smooth side, and Yusuf nods jerkily, Arthur sees out of the corner of his eyes. He isn't looking at anyone.

It was an experiment; someone had the bright idea to mix the dreamers, make it two people's joint dream to create a greater stability, to make the projections less volatile, less prone to attacking anyone who changed something. The possibilities had seemed great and promising; if there's two dreamers, if one doesn't have to be aware of the other, it'd make every future job, including this inception, so much easier.

Nobody had speculated about the possibility of the two subconsciousnesses' projections attacking each other _and_ the dreamers immediately, the possibility of the projections wearing jumbled faces ripped from the other's memories, of jarred, spliced worlds moving and changing without logic, without rhythm or pattern, memories ripping and intermixing and nobody in control, nobody able to change anything, forgery completely useless and no weapons to bring a quick and merciful death.

Arthur's mind is very well-protected, and his projections are ruthless and very efficient in getting rid of unwanted intruders, he knows that. Eames' projections are almost equally efficient, but more prone to creativity; he doesn't care to let anyone who breaks into his dreams get away easily. Arthur's always said that's a weakness, even while he'd been reluctantly impressed that Eames had been able to teach his subconscious to kill creatively. It's genius, almost scary, and Eames always shrugged and said, "not my doing, sweetling". None of them had ever speculated what Arthur's ruthlessness and Eames' creativity combined could achieve, and now they don't need to try anymore. Not that they want to.

Eames doesn't let go of Arthur for the whole rest of the day, keeps his hand cradled between his like a trapped bird, fragile and precious. They both refuse to leave the warehouse early even though the others keep asking, know that silent hotel rooms won't do them any good right now, and when the day wraps up, by unspoken agreement they both book a new room in a new hotel, for both of them together. They don't sleep, that night, and it's five days before they are able to get hooked to the PASIV again without their hands trembling so hard it makes it impossible to attach the wire.

Much later, when Cobb looks at Eames and asks _why_ and _how_ , Arthur uses words like _inevitability_ and _consectary_ , and he means both but he doesn't say that after that dream, they needed to know that they could create something good together, something beautiful. Something that only hurts in a good way.

They never talk about what happened in that dream.


End file.
